Olympic Skiers Interview

What It's Like To Be An Olympic Freestyle Moguls Skier

We often interview people who've had great success in business, entertainment, fashion and sports. We like to know about their lives, their interests, what inspires them. Often, we learn something from them that may help us better achieve in our own lives. Here, AskMen travels to the Canon Australian Freestyle Moguls Championships in Perisher to interview several Olympic-level freestyle moguls skiers, to find out exactly what it takes to reach the highest level in this highly demanding sport. From constantly travelling the world, chasing the winter, to battling through injuries and intense training schedules, the dedication of these (often quite young) athletes is definitely to be admired.

Nineteen year-old from Matt Graham joined the Perisher Winter Sports Club moguls program when he was six and has been skiing ever since. He placed seventh in the finals of the Mens Moguls at the Sochi Olympics.

AskMen: So, Matt, what exactly do you like about freestyle moguls skiing?

Matt Graham: The sport’s pretty diverse. There’s the skiing component, and then there’s the aerial/acrobatic component. I really like that. Also, it might not really look like it, but just about 90% of the time we’re pretty much out of control. The out-of-control element really keeps you on your toes. And the adrenaline you get when you push the speed a bit and really start to get out of control? That’s what attracted me to the sport.

AM: What kind of condition do you need to keep your body in for freestyle moguls skiing? Are there certain muscles you need to pound at the gym?

MG: We do a lot of off-snow strength conditioning training. During the off-season, we do a program with a sports scientist from the Winter Olympics Institute of Australia, John Marsden. And he sets us a program — usually between 9 and 12 sessions a week. We do a lot of aerobic base training at the beginning of the off-season, and then we do a lot of strength work, power-lifting, a lot of stuff to strengthen the knees, the back and the core, because there’s a lot of impact in the bumps. We have to get our bodies ready to take the toll of the moguls.

AM: What’s your touring schedule like?

MG: We do a lot of travelling obviously because we’re chasing the winter. There are only certain times of year when the weather suits mogul courses. During our winter season, we make the most of being here at Perisher. We have really good facilities here and Perisher provides a great course. This year, at the end of September, we’re heading over to Switzerland for another training camp up on a glacier in Zermatt. Then we’ll head overseas for the Northern Hemisphere winter around the 20th of November.

A skier competes at the Canon Australian Freestyle Moguls Championships in Perisher. (Photo taken by Aiden Mackey using the Canon EOS-1D X.)

AM: What’s your favourite place to ski?

MG: My favourite place to be is home, to be honest. When you’re doing a lot of travelling, you kind of get over it a bit. For me, coming home is always a holiday. It’s always nice to come home and spend time with my friends and family

AM: Sochi was your first Olympics. What was that experience like?

MG: It was a great experience. It was really cool to see what the Olympics were like and what they were all about. It’s quite different to other events. Everyone takes it a lot more seriously, and during the 10 days leading up to it, on the course during training, it was funny to watch everyone step it up. Everyone’s scrambling a little bit more to get their run down pat. It was a really great experience and I was happy to be there.

AM: How do the judges judge you guys?

MG: With moguls skiing, there are three components that make up the score. It’s judged out of 100. Sixty points come from your turns — how well you come down the moguls and you’re not allowed to have any form breaks or anything like that. Twenty points come from your jumps, so that’s based on how well you execute your tricks and also the degree of difficulty of your jump. The last 20 points come from your speed — how fast you get down the course.

A skier competes at the Canon Australian Freestyle Moguls Championships in Perisher. (Photo taken by Aiden Mackey using the Canon EOS-1D X.)